Veshone Curtis

Veshone Curtis (1982-2008) was an African-American resident of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn who was killed in a racially-motivated murder in 2008.

Biography
Veshone Curtis was born in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York City in 1982, and he grew up along the predominantly Jewish and Russian neighborhood's border with the predominantly African-American neighborhood of Ocean Hill. He came from a poor family, and he lived off of welfare, while he committed petty crimes and had a police record.

Murder
In 2008, Curtis and his friend Latrelle Calhoun walked down the street which formed the Brighton Beach-Ocean Hill border, which was a contentious racial boundary between the predominantly-Republican Russians and the predominantly-Democratic blacks. As Curtis walked down the street, he was attacked by an Eastern European man wielding a knife, and he was slashed repeatedly. Curtis died of his wounds, being stabbed and slashed multiple times by the assailant. His death was believed to be racially-motivated, and it led to increased ethnic tensions along the Russian-black border.